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CM · Cameroon · –

Bankim fire, 12 February 2025 Bankim

Out · last detection 28 Feb 2025, 12:54 UTC

The fire started on 12 February 2025 in Bankim, Cameroon, and satellites saw it burning for 17 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 1,206 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 95th largest in Adamaoua since 2016 (of 168 with a page). Number 109 in Cameroon in 2025, of 158.

The power measured by the satellite is low (16.5 MW in the strongest hotspot), more typical of grass or stubble burning, or a slow surface fire, than of a large crown fire.

Compare with…

Suggestions: Bankim · 2020Bankim · 2022Bankim · 2017Bankim · 2016

Burnt area
1,206ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
17days
12 Feb 2025 – 28 Feb 2025
Municipalities hit
1
communes
Started on
12 Feb
2025
Heat detections
40
in a single hotspot: 16 MW
Danger at start
46
Very high · FWI index
Average daily power
15MW
detected power per day, on average

Where it burned

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 12 Feb28 Feb
28 Feb 2025

How it evolved, day by day

12 Feb 2025 · 5 MW · 1 13 Feb 2025 · 14 MW · 2 15 Feb 2025 · 11 MW · 1 19 Feb 2025 · 8 MW · 1 20 Feb 2025 · 20 MW · 9 21 Feb 2025 · 11 MW · 14 22 Feb 2025 · 49 MW · 5 24 Feb 2025 · 14 MW · 3 27 Feb 2025 · 9 MW · 2 28 Feb 2025 · 6 MW · 2
12 Feb 15 Feb 20 Feb 22 Feb 27 Feb

Fire radiative power detected each day, in megawatts, and number of hotspots. The magenta bar marks the peak day.

The weather it burned in

36°high
35km/h · peak gust
11%lowest humidity

It had gone more than two months without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

81% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 296 ha in 2016, 789 ha in 2017, 247 ha in 2023. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 971 ha that had burned before.

How big is it?

10 km
It burned the equivalent of 0.8% of the area of London (12 km² against 1,583 km²).

London boundary: geoBoundaries · Office for National Statistics (Open Government Licence v3.0).

This compares size, not location: both shapes are at the same scale, north up, centred on each other.

What happened to each town

  1. Bankim where it started
    1,214 ha reached on 12 Feb
    0.5 %

Burnt area inside each municipality, from crossing the GWIS perimeter with administrative boundaries. The distance runs from the point marking the centre of each area to the nearest fire: staying a kilometre away does not mean it reached the houses.

People and buildings inside the perimeter

GHSL 2025
Built-up area0.13 ha
Residents≈ 20

Inside the perimeter there were about 0.13 hectares of built-up land and about 20 residents (GHSL 2025, satellite-based estimate).

This is an estimate on 100 m cells, made from satellite imagery and census data: it does not mean that homes burned or that anyone was harmed. The perimeter also contains land that never burned. The GHSL 2025 epoch is a projection made from 2020 and earlier data.

Source: Global Human Settlement Layer (GHS-BUILT-S and GHS-POP R2023A), European Commission Joint Research Centre (JRC), © European Union, CC BY 4.0. Sum inside the perimeter computed by WorldFires. human-settlement.emergency.copernicus.eu

The weather day by day

ECMWF ERA5 reanalysis at the fire location, the standard reference for past weather, and the Canadian Fire Weather Index (the same system Copernicus uses), computed by WorldFires from that data. Days after the fire run until the first rain.

Open-Meteo.com (CC BY 4.0) · Copernicus Climate Change Service (ERA5)

Started with Very dry air: 32 % of the area in Cameroon 60 days without rain: 51 % of the area in Cameroon

Day High Min. humidity Peak gust Rain Danger (FWI)
12 Feb 34.9 °C 14 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
13 Feb 34.5 °C 16 % 21 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
14 Feb 34.5 °C 17 % 17 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
15 Feb 34.4 °C 16 % 20 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
16 Feb 34.9 °C 11 % 22 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
17 Feb 35.4 °C 16 % 21 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
18 Feb 35.8 °C 14 % 21 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
19 Feb 34.0 °C 23 % 18 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
20 Feb 35.8 °C 14 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
21 Feb 35.0 °C 16 % 21 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
22 Feb 35.9 °C 15 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
23 Feb 36.2 °C 15 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
24 Feb 36.3 °C 18 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
25 Feb 35.1 °C 22 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
26 Feb 32.5 °C 27 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
27 Feb 34.4 °C 19 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
28 Feb 35.8 °C 15 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
1 Mar after 36.4 °C 14 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
2 Mar after 37.1 °C 14 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 50
3 Mar after 37.0 °C 14 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
4 Mar after 34.7 °C 21 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
5 Mar after 34.8 °C 22 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
6 Mar after 34.6 °C 15 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
7 Mar after 35.6 °C 16 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
8 Mar after 37.2 °C 12 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 50
9 Mar after 36.1 °C 16 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
10 Mar after 35.5 °C 18 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 50

Its twins: fires that started in the same weather

It started with an FWI of 45.7, a minimum humidity of 14% and more than two months without rain. Fires in the area that started in weather like this since 2016: 70.

FWI at the start 45.7
Minimum humidity 14 %
Days without rain 60+
this fire chosen twins rest of the area
Almost identicalSimilar

Outlines of the closest twins

Bankim fire, February 2020
1,063 ha 12 days FWI 45.8 Min. humidity 14 % 10 km away, in 2020

First rain (1 mm or more) after it ended: none in the following ten days.

See its page Compare with this fire

What happened to them

14 days
median duration
1,855 ha
median area
99 %
went past 1,000 ha
4.4 mm
rain at the end (median; 43 of 70 had it)

It stayed below its twins: 1,206 ha against a median of 1,855 ha. It lasted 17 days, against 14 days.

In 27 of 70, not even 1 mm fell in the ten days after the end: they went out without rain. In the rest, the first rainy day brought a median of 4.4 mm.

This is a bank of analogues: it shows what usually happens, not what will happen. With fewer than 15 twins we give no figures. How we calculate it

How it ended

—first rain
—no rain in ten days
35km/h · max. gust

It was considered over on 28 Feb, and not even 1 mm fell in the following ten days: it went out without rain. Twins with rain when they ended: 43 of 70, with a median of 4.4 mm.

Weather on this page: Open-Meteo.com (CC BY 4.0) · Copernicus Climate Change Service (ERA5)

How a twin is chosen

  • Same area: fires that have already ended, less than 250 km from this one, since 2016.
  • Same start: we compare the FWI on the first day, the minimum humidity that day and the run of days without rain before it. The slider sets how much they may differ.
  • Only pages with final weather data (ERA5 reanalysis) calculated in the same way as this fire’s; agricultural and grass burns and pages with data under review are left out.
  • Fires burning at the same time as this one (a week before or after) are left out: they share the same spell of weather and do not count as a precedent.
  • They are sorted by similarity, and the outlines of the first five are drawn.

How we calculate it

Before and after, from space

Drag the line to compare the same ground before the fire and after it.

Before · 5 Feb 2025
After · 7 Mar 2025

If the day is cloudy, change the date: each satellite passes once a day. In false colour the burnt ground looks brown or red.

The smoke

CAMS · Copernicus

On 21 February 2025 the air beside the fire reached 171 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 91: 6.1 times the WHO daily guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak171 µg/m³
Days over the guideline9 days
PM10231 µg/m³
Optical depth1.10
17 Feb19 Feb21 Feb23 Feb25 Feb
Good Fair Moderate Poor Very poor Extremely poor

Particles from the Copernicus CAMS model at the centre of the perimeter; these are not measurements in each town. The pale bar is the worst hour, the solid one the daily average.

Open-Meteo.com (CC BY 4.0) · Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service (CAMS)

Detections table · 40Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
⬇ Download CSV Times in UTC. Each detection is a 375 m pixel: a large fire yields hundreds per pass.
Date and timeSatelliteFRP (MW)LatLon

Other fires nearby

All fires in Cameroon

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Bankim fire last?
According to the heat detections seen by satellite inside the perimeter, it burned from 12 February 2025 to 28 February 2025 (17 days). The perimeter dates it from 19 February 2025 to 22 February 2025.
How much area did it burn?
The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 1,206 hectares (12.1 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Bankim (1,214 ha, 0.5 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 36.3 °C, humidity dropped to 11 % and gusts hit 35 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 48, class Very high.
Where does this data come from?
From the GWIS (Copernicus) burnt perimeter, NASA FIRMS VIIRS hotspots and the administrative boundaries of Cameroon (geoBoundaries). It is not an official report.
How did the fires that started in similar weather in this area end?
Fires less than 250 km away that started since 2016 with a similar FWI, humidity and dry spell: 70. Their median duration was 14 days and their median area 1,855 ha; 99 % went past 1,000 ha. In 27 of 70, not even 1 mm fell in the ten days after the end: they went out without rain. In the rest, the first rainy day brought a median of 4.4 mm.

Where to verify it

A satellite detection is not an official report. Final figures and the fire’s status are published by each country’s emergency service.

Satellite cross-check

History of this page · 2 Changes in area, dates, name, official record or merged pages, compared every night since 24 October 2026.
  1. Last day with fire: 22 February 2025 → 28 February 2025.
  2. Start date: 19 February 2025 → 12 February 2025.

RSS Changes to this page With cross-checks and a citable version

Does something look wrong on this page?

This page is built from satellite data and official records, and it sometimes gets things wrong: the wrong dates, the wrong town, two fires merged into one, or something that was not a wildfire at all. If you know this fire first-hand (you live nearby, saw it, fought it or reported on it), tell us what really happened and we will check it.

Report an error
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How we know this
  • Perimeter: GWIS (Copernicus), rebuilt from heat detections rather than mapped on imagery.
  • Dates adjusted with the VIIRS detections inside the perimeter, which said 19 February 2025 to 22 February 2025. 40 Suomi-NPP VIIRS detections on those dates.
  • We have not matched this page with any official record.
  • Weather: Copernicus ERA5 reanalysis at the fire location, in cells of about 25 km.
  • Built-up area and population come from the JRC Global Human Settlement Layer (epoch 2025, 100 m cells), summed inside the perimeter: an estimate of what was there, not a damage count.

How we build fire pages: methodology

Where this data comes from

The perimeter comes from the Copernicus Global Wildfire Information System (GWIS), which rebuilds it from MODIS and VIIRS heat detections and publishes it under CC BY 4.0. It is not measured on imagery as in Europe, so it is an estimate. Heat detections come from the VIIRS sensors aboard Suomi-NPP and NOAA-20, distributed by NASA FIRMS at 375 m resolution. Municipal boundaries come from geoBoundaries ADM3 (Open Data Commons Open Database License 1.0). The area per municipality is computed by WorldFires by crossing the perimeter with those boundaries, so it may differ from each country’s official figure.